Expert: Nicole - 1/14/2009

Question
Hello, about a week ago I bought three fire bellied toads and I think I may have two males and a female (assumption based on their habits).  Two of them are fighting.  One will hop on the others back, the one on the bottom will warn the other that he's a male too, and then it's an all out brawl.  They hug each other while rolling around the water area of the tank until one gets an advantage over the other, then the one that has the advantage (being on top)will hold the other one under the water as if he is trying to drown him.  I don't know how long they can stay under without needing to come up for air so I'm wondering if I need to separate them or will they work things out?  Thanks for your help!

Answer
The fighting that is happening is actually pretty common among this species and usually there is no harm done to each other. They can hold their breath a lot longer than you would expect, so the odds of them drowning each other are slim. I would regularly check them over to make sure they haven't caused any physical harm to each other, but they should be fine in the same tank.